Chapter 28: Flow
Her plan had worked! Kyoka wasn't entirely sure howher plan for the second round had worked, but it had. Most of the other teams had sent at least one of their competitors to chase after the golden target the entire time, leaving at most one member of their team to capture regular targets.
The combination of Aoyama and Hatsume allowed her team to capture almost as many targets as Todoroki's and Midoriya's teams. Well, it was almost entirely Hatsume who captured those targets, either by herself or with her drone. Aoyama got bogged down in a surprisingly long clash with Monoma relatively early on in the round.
Regardless, Kyoka could pinpoint the targets, Awase could make sure they weren't stolen, Hatsume could nab them, and Aoyama was a flashy distraction. It all worked perfectly. There had been a few close calls of other students attempting to ambush Hatsume on her way back to their collection point, but Kyoka had been able to warn her in each of those cases. Ultimately they had the fourth most points out of all of the teams, but given that Yanagi's team was disqualified for losing the golden target, they'd managed to slip into the finals with the third highest score!
The first thing that Kyoka wanted to do now that she was (somehow) in the finals was to find Izuku and celebrate over lunch. She didn't really expect to get past even the first round of the one-on-one fights. Just reaching the final round was enough of an accomplishment for her. Leave the punching and the spotlight to people like Izuku.
No matter how shy he might seem, he always rose to the occasion and was an inspiration whenever called upon. He just needed a little motivation to help get him over the hump in the first place. Besides, he had All Might's quirk and his own brain and determination. There was no force on the planet that could keep him from being the number one hero if he put his mind to it.
They had had to walk back to the arena still in their teams for no good reason, as far as Kyoka could tell, which meant that she couldn't go find Izuku until they had been allowed to mingle and go for lunch. Unfortunately, as soon as they were dismissed, Todoroki of all people was leading Izuku off into the tunnels beneath the U.A stadium, his stoic face more of a mask than normal.
Given how the recommended student had spoken to Izuku before the first round and the fact that Izuku had scored higher than Todoroki in both of the first two rounds, Kyoka was not entirely happy to see the two of them duck off somewhere unobserved. Todoroki didn't seem like the type of person who would resort to underhanded tricks to get the upper hand, but he also didn't seem like the type of person who was used to losing the upper hand in the first place. This may have legitimately been the first time he'd been in a competition and not been winning.
Kyoka was following the two of them before she could think of a reason not to. Alarm bells were ringing in her head as she trailed behind the two boys, getting further and further from the roar of the crowd behind and above them. She made sure to stay just out of sight, relying on her hearing to keep behind them.
Eventually, Todoroki stopped walking and Izuku followed suit. Kyoka stayed back, ears straining to hear anything at all, but the two of them were simply standing there, silent. In the quiet, she could hear both of the hearts, even at this distance. Both of their hearts were racing. Despite the stoicism that Todoroki had shown earlier, he must have been dying of anxiety on the inside.
It was ultimately Izuku who broke the awkward, icy silence. "You had something that you wanted to talk about? If we don't hurry we probably won't have enough time for lunch."
"You don't make sense." Todoroki was as blunt and deadpan as ever.
"Excuse me?"
"I've been surprised by the strength of the students here at U.A. Yanagi, Tokoyami, Honenuki, they all managed to best me at one point or another. But you have done so on multiple occasions now. So much so that you overwhelmed me to the point that I broke my pledge."
"I'm not sure that I follow." Kyoka was sure that she didn't follow. It was obvious that Todoroki was comparing himself to the other top students in both classes, but what was his pledge? And what did Izuku have to do with it?
"The pressure I felt from you at the end of the last round was the same as what I felt from you at the USJ when you were fighting the nomu. And it was the same as what I've felt from All Might. I initially chalked it up to coincidence, but I have been forced to consider more … unusual explanations." That wasn't good. Izuku had been pretty adamant about his quirk being a national security risk if it got out. Hopefully Todoroki was off on a different trail entirely, or else this discussion might get very problematic very quickly.
Izuku gulped at hearing Todoroki's statement. "Such as?"
"Are you All Might's illegitimate love child?" Silence was the only answer Todoroki got at first, and Kyoka could only imagine what Izuku's face must look like at that moment. It took all she had to not audibly laugh, enough so that she nearly missed Izuku's whispered comment to himself.
"Fuck, I wish." Despite herself, Kyoka did let out a small laugh at that comment, before quickly covering her mouth with her hands and earjacks.
"What?" Kyoka fervently hoped that Todoroki was responding to Izuku's whispered comment, not the noise that she had made. Thankfully, there was no sound of approaching footsteps, and it seemed as if her presence was still unnoticed. Izuku let out a small sigh before he responded to Todoroki directly.
"No, I'm not. My father is named Hisashi Midoriya. I just found out that he works for the HPSC, so you may even meet him at some point. People tell me I look a lot like him, but I don't see it, personally." Kyoka had seen pictures, and there was certainly a resemblance.
"Hm." Todoroki did not sound convinced. "Regardless, there is something between you and All Might. He is interested in you beyond the similarity between your quirks. That makes it all the more important for me to crush you in the next round."
"Honestly, if you're going to repeat your declaration of war from earlier, I'm just going to head to lunch now." It was always nice whenever Izuku got past his anxiety and let a little of his inner snark out. He was pretty good about that with her, but it seemed that annoying him was the best way to get him to do it with other people, currently. Hopefully he'd get better with time and actual friends.
"You know that my father is Endeavor." Kyoka couldn't hear Izuku's response, presumably a nod, but she was somewhat surprised at this revelation. In retrospect it was obvious, but a student with an ice-based quirk didn't make her think of the number two hero. "He has tried and failed to take the number one spot from All Might for twenty years now. So he decided that he would take a different approach. What do you know about quirk marriages?"
Izuku made a sound of disgust deep in his throat. "Enough to know that I don't like where this is going." Kyoka couldn't help but agree.
"My mother has a powerful ice quirk. Their first child, Touya, had a flame quirk even more powerful than Endeavor's, but only a resistance to cold, not to heat. Endeavor didn't care, and trained him until he died. Touya was consumed by his own quirk as Endeavor stood watching." A pit developed deep in Kyoka's stomach. How could Todoroki talk about his older brother's death with such indifference? "I am the fourth child that he forced onto her, all to get a quirk like mine: one that was half her ice and half his fire, with tolerances for both."
"Todoroki…" Kyoka could hear the tears in Izuku's eyes in the way he said Todoroki's name. She pointedly ignored the tears in her own.
"I was raised to be a hero that could exceed All Might, all to fulfill his dream." The harsh edge of anger finally broke through Todoroki's even tone, lending even more emotion to his story. He took a breath to recenter himself before continuing, emotions once again locked deep inside of him. "Touya's death broke my mother. Apparently I look quite a lot like him, especially my left side. Eventually, all she could see when she looked at me was Touya, burning, begging her to help him. She dumped boiling water on me to try to put out those imagined flames." A detached part of Kyoka's mind noted the source of Todoroki's scar as the rest of her reeled from these revelations. "Endeavor had her committed to a mental hospital for damaging his masterpiece."
After a moment of silence, presumably to collect himself, Izuku asked what Kyoka thought was a very reasonable question. "Why are you telling me this?"
"To let you know that using his fire in the previous round was an aberration. Something that will never happen again." Kyoka couldn't get a handle on Todoroki's logic. This conversation felt like he was jumping from topic to topic with only the smallest connection between them. "I will defeat you without his rotten quirk. I will prove to him and the world that I can rise to the top with only my mother's ice." The sounds of Todoroki's footsteps caused Kyoka to tense, preparing to hide, but he was walking in the opposite direction. He had one last parting statement for Izuku, though, on his way out. "Keep your connection to All Might to yourself. It doesn't matter. I will defeat you using only my right side."
"Todoroki." The boy's footsteps paused at Izuku's words. "I'm sorry. No one should have to go through that." That was putting it lightly. "But no one is going to go easy on you because of your past. We all want to win. And if we end up facing each other, you'll need to come at me with everything you have."
"Hmph." Todoroki's footsteps started up again as he walked away. Apparently he didn't feel the need to respond to Izuku's response any more than he had in the preparation room. Kyoka waited for his footsteps to fade away entirely, hearing Izuku slide down the wall to sit on the floor, before she came out from her hiding space to stand next to him.
Izuku didn't respond to her appearance with surprise, staring off in the direction that Todoroki had presumably walked away. He must have known she was there the entire time. Did Todoroki know? Kyoka's thoughts were interrupted by Izuku speaking, half to himself. "I really need to stop antagonizing the strongest student in our class."
"Second strongest, Green." Kyoka held out a hand to help Izuku get back to his feet.
Instead of taking it, however, he looked up at her, confusion in his eyes. "What? Who do you think is… Oh you're talking about me." Izuku rolled his eyes and grabbed onto her hand, letting her help him stand up. "Let's just agree to disagree."
Kyoka smirked. "Not on your life. You don't seem surprised to see me, either."
"I saw you following behind while we were walking off. I assumed you were listening in." Kyoka felt the smirk drop off her face as she remembered exactly what Todoroki had revealed to Izuku. She didn't know exactly what was showing on her face, but it was enough to get Izuku nodding in sympathy. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Let's go grab lunch. I need to get my head around all of this."
"Me too, Green. Me too."
---
Mezo was trying very hard to bury his disappointment at not making it to the final round of the sports festival while all of his friends had. At the same time, it seemed like they were all trying to bury their own anxiety over the final round. Thankfully, Uraraka and Honenuki were aggressively making sure the conversation stayed light and fun. If they were a hair louder and rowdier than normal, it wasn't out of place in the cafeteria today. Yaoyorozu's facade of polite serenity came closer to cracking today than Mezo had ever seen before as she clearly enjoyed the extra energy and distraction from her friends.
On the other hand, Midoriya and Jiro seemed, if anything, more anxious than normal, even accounting for the upcoming final round. For Midoriya, that was saying quite a lot. They had arrived quite late to lunch, well after everyone else had picked up food and begun to eat. Honenuki had hypothesized that they were celebrating by making out somewhere private, much to Uraraka's amusement and Yaoyorozu's embarrassment. However, when the two arrived, they looked sad and conflicted. They obviously hadn't been making out, but Mezo still didn't have any idea what they had been up to. Once they ate some food and joined the conversation, however, they both appeared to perk up some as well.
The distraction of conversation with his friends was interrupted by Present Mic announcing the beginning of the consolation games. Most of the support and general education students that Mezo could see in the lunchroom got up to join in the fun, but only a handful of the hero students did so as well. Mezo himself did not feel up for what had historically been silly games. He had had his chance to impress hero agencies in the first two rounds already; it was highly unlikely that he was going to turn any heads in a three legged race, or tug of war, or any of the other activities that usually made up the consolation games.
"You're not going, Shoji?" Uraraka asked. Mezo simply shook his head in response. "I get it. I'm not sure I would want to go and try to have fun after not making the final round. I'd be so frustrated." Mezo simply looked at her, blinking slowly. It took a moment, but Uraraka seemed to realize what she had said, face turning a brilliant shade of red.
"Ohmygosh I don't mean that it's bad that you didn't make the final round, just that I'd be frustrated in that case, and now I'm remembering that I stole some targets from Kamakiri and he was on your team and I'm just going to shut up now." She made good on her words, abruptly shutting her mouth and hiding her face in her hands.
There were a handful of chuckles around the table. "I know that you weren't trying to be mean, Uraraka." Mezo was glad that he got a squeak of acknowledgement and a small, timid, thumbs up from the girl. She'd be ok once she managed to get over her embarrassment. "I am certainly disappointed, but more because I don't feel like I lived up to my own expectations for my performance, irrespective of whether I made the final round." Honenuki opened his mouth and raised a finger to speak, but Mezo pre-empted him. "No, I don't think consolation games would help with that." With his finger still hanging in the air, Honenuki closed his mouth.
"And we understand entirely, Shoji." Yaoyorozu tried to soothe him. It didn't seem entirely necessary as he had already come to terms with his disappointment.
"But you shouldn't be disappointed?" All of the conversation, including whatever Yaoyorozu was going to say next, disappeared as Midoriya spoke up. Mezo simply tilted his head at the boy's rather bold statement. "I mean, far be it from me to tell you how you should feel, but I think you did really awesome in both of the first two events! You finished seventh in the first round which automatically means there were a lot of eyes on you, both for finishing highly, and because you got a team with your name on it in the second round."
"To be fair, a lot of that was Honenuki and his quirk." Honenuki looked proud. A little too proud. "No matter how much it pains me to say it." The offended squawk from his friend was enough to make Mezo smile under his mask.
"Yeah, but you're the one who led him to all the groups to sink. Any hero agency worth their salt will see that."
"You probably did better than me in that round, too." Jiro spoke up for the first time in a while, coming out of whatever funk she had been in. "You had the benefit of sight and hearing."
"Yeah, we wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as many points that round without you." Despite his earlier jab at Honenuki, he was glad to hear his friend say that. Sometimes it felt too easy to be overlooked as 'just' the eyes and ears of a group.
"And in the second round you basically kept your group afloat." Midoriya continued. "I feel like you were always around the targets I was trying to pick up."
"I did hear Todoroki mention more than once that you had managed to nab a target he'd been aiming for." Both Midoriya and Yaoyorozu's comments came as a bit of a surprise to Mezo. He knew that there had been a number of close calls between him and the searchers from other teams, but he had felt the entire time that he'd been on the wrong side of basically all of them. Interesting how the perspective of his friends was so different.
"And your score was really close to Jiro and Awase's team." Uraraka brought up. "If I hadn't stolen those two targets from Kamakiri, you might be in the finals instead of them." Mezo wasn't much one for 'what ifs,' and didn't like to imagine an alternative where he knocked one of his other friends out of the finals instead.
"Thanks for the theft, then, Uraraka." The snark was back in Jiro's voice at this, which was good to hear. Once again Uraraka became red-faced and scrambled to make things better, but Jiro kept talking. "I know you didn't mean anything by it. And I am really happy to be in the finals either way." She sighed. "Although I'm probably going to be out of the finals after the first fight. I mean, how am I supposed to fight Kirishima of all people? I'll break my hand if I try to punch him!"
"At least you'll have a chance to get close to him." Uraraka countered in a grumble. "I have to go up against Aoyama. I'll be lucky if he lets me within ten feet, let alone close enough to do anything."
"I must admit, I am somewhat… uneasy… about facing off against Kaminari. He showed in our joint training that he was quite adept with his quirk, and I fear that he will simply overwhelm me." Mezo raised an eyebrow at that. He felt that Yaoyorozu was second only to Midoriya amongst his friends in terms of chances of winning the Sports Festival as a whole.
"I… I'm not sure how my match against Ashido will go, either. But I'm going to give it my best shot. That's all I can really do." And now Midoriya was showing doubts. That part at least wasn't too surprising. For all of his power and skill, Mezo knew that he was an anxious wreck most of the time.
"Pfft, amateurs." Honenuki was nearly laughing at the other four at this point. Uraraka made some offended noises, but Honenuki just shook his head, looking more than a little haunted. "You all are going up against normal students. I get to go up against Todoroki." The rest of the table fell quiet at that. "You all have a chance to win. I simply have a chance to not die." He made a small salute with a mirthless chuckle. "It's been nice knowing all of you."
"I feel the need to point out that you are all being a bit over dramatic." Mezo decided he had to speak out at this point, and worked his way around the table for all of his friends. "Jiro, you are far more skilled in hand to hand combat than Kirishima, and I've seen your jacks penetrate solid steel. I'm sure you can find a way to use that against him. Midoriya, you are stronger, faster, and honestly, smarter in a fight than Ashido. All you have to do is get close against her and you'll have the advantage."
Already Midoriya and Jiro were looking a little more upbeat, and Mezo's other friends seemed hopeful as to what he would say about them. "Uraraka, everyone here knows that Aoyama can't keep his quirk up for long. Just wait him out until you can get in close. Yaoyorozu, you can create literally anything. I'm sure you can think of some insulating materials to deal with an electricity quirk." Finally, Mezo turned to Honenuki who was leaning forward in anticipation, letting the silence build up the moment. When he did go to speak, he spoke out of his actual mouth for emphasis, instead of the ends of one of his arms.
"Honenuki, to be honest, you're just fucked."
There was a beat before anyone reacted, with Jiro, Midoriya, and Uraraka cracking up at the comment, Yaoyorozu decrying the unexpected vulgarity, and Honenuki arguing back with all the ways he could, in theory, defeat Todoroki. Mezo didn't swear often, which made the occasions when he did all the more powerful. In any event, his friends all seemed to be out of their heads at this point, which was all he had hoped for.
He still couldn't see Honenuki beating Todoroki, though.
---
"And now, for the first fight of the final round! On one side, we have the living armory of Class 1-A! If you need it, she can make it, it's Momo Yaoyorozu!" A wave of applause and cheers rained down from the stands as Momo walked towards the ring. "And on the other side, the walking, talking Tesla coil from Class 1-B; it's Denki Kaminari!" Thankfully, the applause and cheers for Kaminari were roughly the same volume as her own.
Lunch had been an entertaining distraction, but now the time of reckoning had arrived. Finally, Momo would be able to truly impress the hero agencies out there. She had done well in the first event, albeit as a group with Midoriya and Kyoka. The second event had been frustrating, with Todoroki requesting that she stay on defense the entire time. Here, though, against Denki Kaminari, she'd be able to really show what she was made of. Her friends had done an excellent job at pumping her up for this fight.
Momo just would have preferred if she didn't have the absolute first fight of the tournament.
Her opponent did not seem to be suffering from the same anxieties that she was, as he had been idly chatting with the purple haired Shinso all the way up until he exited the tunnel. Even now, he was waving at the crowd, blowing kisses seemingly indiscriminately. Throughout all of it he wore a cocky smirk, as if already assured of his own victory.
"Contestants." Midnight drew everyone's attention as her voice was now amplified for the final round. "The rules of this round are simple! You win by forcing your opponent out of bounds, knocking them out, or by getting them to yield. Quirks are fair game, but try not to go too far. You're aiming to knock out your opponent, not kill them, after all. If anyone goes too far, Cementoss and I will end the fight and you will be disqualified." Momo could only hope that their reflexes were sharp enough for that; some of those in her class had quirks that could kill or maim in an instant. Midnight gave both her and Kaminari a sharp look. "Understood?"
Both Momo and her opponent nodded their assent, and Midnight raised her whip. "Begin!"
Before Momo could even begin to put her plan into motion, however, Kaminari's voice rang out from across the ring. "Do you wanna go grab something to eat after we're done here?" Was he really asking her out in the middle of a battle tournament?
In one sense Momo was glad that her opponent was choosing to waste his time like this; it gave her time to enact her plan. She began creating all over her body underneath her gym uniform partially to hide the tell-tale light from her quirk, partially because she needed to cover as much of her body as possible.
On the other hand, though, it was infuriating that Kaminari was apparently so self-assured of his own victory that he felt completely at ease wasting time like this. Momo would just have to show him that such overconfidence would be his downfall.
"Now is hardly the time to have such a discussion!" She was essentially done with the main portion of her plan and ready to shift her attention to forming a wooden bo staff from her palm as soon as she could. "We are here to fight, not anything else."
Kaminari simply shrugged and looked to the side, not looking the least bit ashamed of himself. "Yeah, you're right. Can't blame a guy for trying, though. After all, this round is going to be over in a flash." At that, he sprang forward, closing the distance between them far too quickly for Momo's comfort. Yellow lightning arced dangerously between his fingers as he approached her.
Momo stepped backwards, not quite done with her bo staff, but Kaminari was faster and on her in an instant. One of his hands grabbed the staff itself, while the other reached out and touched the back of her hand.
Nothing happened.
Her staff now complete, Momo wrenched it from Kaminari's grip with a quick twist before sweeping it in a wide arc to force Kaminari back. Now that she had room, Momo fell into a practiced routine, easily keeping her opponent at range while still attempting strikes and his joints and ribs with the end of her staff.
"Oh ho! Despite some quick moves by Kaminari, it seems that Yaoyorozu has him on the back foot! It just raises the question of why he hasn't used his quirk yet!" Momo had forgotten how irritating Present Mic's commentary was during the first round, and resigned herself to enduring it again.
"Yeah, why isn't my quirk working on you?!" Kaminari managed to ask, dodging her strikes to the best of his abilities. One or two jabs to his ribs still managed to slip through his defenses, but the more debilitating strikes to his wrists and knees had been blocked or dodged.
Hoping to fully break Kaminari's confidence, Momo decided to answer him truthfully. She paused her assault to pull up her sleeve slightly, just enough to show the edge of the insulated rubber body suit that she had created in secret at the beginning of the fight. "I'm totally insulated. There is no path from me to ground. Your quirk can't hurt me, Kaminari."
As she pulled her sleeve back down, she sincerely hoped that the blonde boy would understand the position he was in and would concede. Momo could already feel the sweat dripping down her back in the tight rubber suit on her body. She had a few more minutes at peak efficiency, but she was going to start overheating fast if this fight carried on too long. In principle, she could create ice or something else to cool herself down, but there wasn't much room left inside her defenses.
Much to her dismay, Kaminari didn't look defeated at all by her statement. If anything, he looked relieved. "Oh, thank god. I thought I had forgotten how to use my quirk again." Again? He had forgotten before? "I was hoping to save this for later in the festival, but beggars can't be choosers, I guess. Here goes nothing!"
With a wince, Kaminari started sparking once again, but this time, the electricity arced across his entire body, not just between his fingers. In an instant, Kaminari had thrown himself back at Momo at least twice as quickly as he had before. He closed the gap in an eyeblink and only years of training allowed Momo to keep the bo staff between them as he pressed the assault.
Kaminari was already breathing heavily, eyes narrowed in concentration, but it was all Momo could do to defend, even with the advantage of reach from her staff. It reminded her of trying to fight Midoriya during the battle trial, where no matter what she did he was always a half step faster. Thankfully this time, Uraraka wasn't throwing furniture at her the entire time. Kaminari had been pushing her back, though, closer and closer to the edge of the ring.
Unfortunately, Kyoka wasn't going to come to save her this time. Momo would have to go on the offensive and win this fight herself. Kaminari's fighting style was far less refined than Midroiya's, and Momo already saw an opening or two that she could exploit.
The next time Kaminari swung a fist at her, instead of knocking it to the side as she had been, Momo stepped forward, inside his swing, and dropped her staff. He obviously hadn't been expecting either of those moves as she pulled in close and drove her palm into his chest. A sudden quick twist kept him from having the air forced out of his lungs, but Momo still connected solidly with his ribs where she had struck before and was rewarded with a grunt of pain from Kaminari.
Still inside his defenses, Momo slipped a leg behind his and went for a quick throw over her shoulder to get him out of bounds. She knew she wouldn't be able to overpower him, and so had to get by with the benefit of surprise. Unfortunately, his leg began sparking even more and didn't budge as she went to loosen his stance and prepare for a throw.
Momo looked up and found that it wasn't just his leg that was sparking more, but his entire body. Despite the grimace of pain on his face, firm hands gripped her shoulders as Kaminari easily lifted her and threw her inelegantly over the edge of the ring.
"Denki Kaminari wins!" Midnight crowed as soon as Momo landed. The crowd burst into raucous cheers as Present Mic's commentary continued. Momo didn't hear any of it though, focused only on the green grass beneath her.
She was out. Despite all of her planning and preparations, she was out in the very first fight of the final round. It had never crossed her mind that Kaminari would have been able to use his electricity to enhance his speed and strength. And because of that, she had lost any shot at impressing any decent hero agency. Tears formed at the corner of her eyes as she went to push herself up.
What she hadn't been expecting was for Kaminari to come towards her and reach his hand out to help her up. A hand that was shaking quite fiercely. Looking up towards him, she could see that his right eye was bloodshot, and he was biting his lip to keep it from shaking as well. "That was some fight!" Kaminari's voice was far less even than before. "Didn't think I'd have to push myself to move that fast. You're really something else, you know that?"
Momo looked at him and found no trace of deception or pity, just pure respect. Listening to Present Mic's recap of the event, she found her teacher describing both of them in glowing, hyperbolic terms. Apparently much of their melee occurred too quickly for many in the audience to easily observe, and they were replaying parts of their match on the big screen in slow motion.
Maybe it was possible to impress potential hero agencies even with a loss. Momo smiled, looking up at Kaminari. "I really thought I had you for a moment there. Good fight!" She took his hand, and the crowd roared.
---
Apparently, the live broadcast of the sports festival was on a five second delay, presumably so anything that was too violent or otherwise unfit for general consumption could be censored out. Kyoka hadn't known that beforehand, but sitting in the prep room before her fight, watching Uraraka compete against Aoyama, the tv in front of her was well out of sync with what she could hear coming from above. She'd had to mute it to not go crazy from the doubled up noise.
Not that it mattered too much at this point, anyway. Uraraka had taken Shoji's advice to heart and not tried to get too close to Aoyama too quickly. His endurance was slightly more than Kyoka might have expected, but it was obvious that he was running on fumes at this point, clutching his stomach. Kyoka heard a roar from the crowd before watching the Ochako on the television dash towards Aoyama and remove his gravity, quickly floating him out of bounds.
Good for her. It meant that at least one of Shoji's predictions had come true, at least. Yaomomo had put up a fantastic fight, and watching it live had been a trip, but no one had thought that Kaminari would be able to use his quirk on himself to make him stronger and faster.
Well, no one except for Izuku, as Kyoka had found out by listening to his muttering. Apparently he had suggested it to Kaminari all those months ago when he had been providing analysis for Yagi's (it was still difficult to reconcile the skeletal Yagi with All Might) scouting program. To Izuku's credit, though, it had been purely hypothetical and not something that he thought Kaminari had actually managed.
Now, though, it was Kyoka's turn. Every step she took from the prep room towards the entrance tunnel ratcheted her anxiety just a little bit higher. It wasn't until she was standing in the tunnel, ready to enter at Present Mic's introduction, that she realized quite how stressed she was. Her hands were balled in fists at her sides, and her earjacks were retracted all the way up to her ears, an old form of comfort that she hadn't found herself using in years.
Kyoka retreated to her old methods of calming herself. Closed eyes, breath in for five beats, out for seven. Just the repetition and familiarity helped some, but she was still incredibly high strung. She added in a suggestion from Izuku: actually increasing the tension in her hands or earjacks as she breathed in, before letting it flow out on the exhale.
That did the trick, slowing down her racing heart and loosening her hands and earjacks in preparation for the fight ahead.
She opened her eyes and focused across the ring on her opponent. Kirishima was apparently pumping himself up, hitting himself in the chest with his fists. Kyoka snorted, unable to think of anything more appropriate for the manliness obsessed boy.
"Let's give it up for our next contestants! First, the punk rock star of Class 1-A and a girl after my own heart, it's Kyoka Jiro! She'll be going up against the impenetrable defense and rock-solid offense of Class 1-A's Eijiro Kirishima!" Kyoka didn't really listen to Present Mic's introductions nor to the cheers and applause from the crowd. She could hear them, certainly, but she had emerged from her anxiety with a startling sense of clarity. The only thing she was focused on right now was beating Kirishima.
Kyoka wasn't even aware of indicating to Midnight that she was ready for the fight to begin, but she was keenly aware of the teacher raising her whip to begin the fight. Kirishima was lumbering over towards her immediately, but the only thing Kyoka could think about was how slow he seemed. Compared to the lightning-quick fight between Yaomomo and Kaminari, this was absolutely glacial. She even had time to groan at her own pun before Kirishima made it close enough to attack.
Every musician knows about the state of flow, where the rhythm and melody suffuse throughout your body, and every note you hit is just perfect. Kyoka had experienced it once or twice when improvising on the guitar while Izuku listened, where she just somehow knew that every note she played would be exactly the right one to choose.
Now she felt somewhat similar. The only thing she was focused on were Kirishima's attacks and her own responses to them. But oddly, despite the force he was putting into his punches, and the rock hard fists he was using, Kyoka never felt in any danger. She could see each attack, each strike, well before it landed, and was able to redirect or dodge away from each of them.
While avoiding Kirishima's onslaught, Kyoka took a moment to observe her opponent. He was only hardening his fists and arms on his attacks, and only hardening them at the point of contact. It was obvious that he was conserving his energy, not wasting it on hardening anything beyond what was absolutely necessary.
After a moment more of playing pure defense, Kyoka decided that she had to go on the attack. She ducked neatly under a haymaker from the red-haired boy and went to sweep his legs out from under him. Her attempt didn't go very far at all, as he had apparently hardened his legs in anticipation of her attack, causing her leg to bounce off of his with a meaty smack.
That hurt far more than she had expected, and was probably the most damage he had done to her so far. Kyoka tried to back up and get a little more room to try to plan, but Kirishima was relentless, following her without letting up his own assault.
Kyoka tested his defenses with a few more jabs and kicks at his face and chest, but every time she thought that she was about to connect with flesh, he was able to harden his body and no-sell the attack. Even worse, every time that she tried to strike back, he came closer and closer to landing one of his devastating punches. Kirishima may have been a brawler at heart, but it suited him and his quirk quite well. Even one punch would probably be the end of the road for Kyoka.
It was time to try another tactic. Kyoka had been trained some in throws and holds, but only the most basic introduction, so she didn't want to try that against someone as large and strong as Kirishima. Instead, she loosened her earjacks, waiting for another opening from Kirishima.
This time, when she struck back with her fist at his torso, she snaked her earjack alongside her fist. Pulling up just short with her fist, she let just her earjack strike Kirishima below the ribs. Instead of bouncing off like her hands and feet, her earjack sunk right into his hardened body, just like it would into rock or concrete.
Kirishima froze, staring down at the earjack embedded near his stomach with wide eyes, mouth agape. He obviously hadn't been expecting Kyoka to be able to hurt him through his hardening in any meaningful way. She let loose a pulse from her earjack and found that even without hitting any resonant frequencies, Kirishima's quirk simply shattered from the extra strain forcing him to stagger backwards, one hand to the puncture wound.
"How… how did you do that?" Kirishima gasped at her, face still painted with shock. Kyoka was sure that her face was showing much the same, her eyes wide. She hadn't expected her sound waves to be quite so effective. All she could do in the moment was shrug. "Well, no matter. I'm not backing down!"
Once again, Kirishima lunged forward, obviously somewhat slowed by Kyoka's earlier attack. This time, in addition to dodging his over-telegraphed punch, she used her earjacks to penetrate his arm, sending another pulse of her heartbeat towards the arm. Again, Kirishima's quirk violently broke apart, his arm hanging uselessly at his side in the aftermath. His fingers were still twitching, thankfully, so Kyoka hoped there wasn't any permanent damage.
Kirishima didn't give up, though. He probably thought that it wouldn't be manly to give up, no matter what. So Kyoka went on the offensive, with fist and foot and earjack. Wherever she struck with her hands or feet, she made sure an earjack was close behind in case Kirishima decided to harden himself. It didn't take long for Kyoka to have Kirishima immobilized on the ground, pressing her knee into his back, three of his limbs still weak and shaking from having their hardening shattered.
"And the winner is Kyoka Jiro!" Midnight announced. This was enough to break Kyoka out of her focus, and realize what exactly had just happened. She quickly got off of Kirishima and rolled him onto his back, taking care with where she shattered his hardening.
"Are you alright, Kirishima? I couldn't think of another way to stop you." Kyoka really hadn't wanted to break him down this much to win, but he just kept coming. Thankfully, he raised his one remaining good hand in a thumbs up motion.
"I'm fine." He croaked. "I wouldn't have wanted to go down any other way. You're the manliest woman I know, Jiro." Kirishima blinked once or twice before hastily adding on. "Except for Mina."
Kyoka was going to take that as the compliment it was obviously intended as, and not as the insult it could have been construed as. The medical bots were quick on the scene, and she helped load Kirishima onto a stretcher to the applause of the crowd.
Somehow, not only had she made it through to the final round of the festival, she was into the quarter finals. She was so far beyond how she expected to do that it felt almost like a dream that would end at any moment.
It felt good, though, and she resolved to make sure she got as far as possible. After all, at this point, who knew how far she could go.
---
Hitoshi was feeling pretty good about his chances right now. His first opponent was Hagakure, who was a chatterbox and would almost certainly respond to him at one point or another giving him an easy win. His second opponent had just been decided as Jiro from 1-A. Hitoshi didn't know much about her, but she didn't know much about him either. In particular, he had only told Midoriya and Yaoyorozu the details of his quirk, and asked them to keep quiet about it. It was highly unlikely that Jiro knew the activation requirements for him. At that point, he'd be in the semis against either Uraraka, another 1-A student who almost certainly knew nothing of his capabilities, or Denki, who was an idiot.
Well, that wasn't fair to Denki. He just didn't always pay attention to his surroundings as much as he should. And for the most part, that was a good thing. Children shouldn't have to be conscious of every sound they make, to react instantly every time someone addressed them, or to be able to tell the difference in someone's mood based on the sound of their footsteps.
Hitoshi knew that his childhood had been awful and had accepted that it had turned him into an asshole who wanted to be a hero primarily out of spite. But that was ok, as long as he could be an inspiration for other children with so-called 'villainous quirks,' as long as he could tell the world of the utter injustice visited upon some of the most vulnerable members of society. Hitoshi was more than willing to be an asshole and isolate himself as long as he could reach his goal.
And then he joined Class 1-B and met Denki. The rest of the class had been happy enough to leave Hitoshi alone to stew in resentment and anger, even if they were never anywhere near as bad as his previous classmates. But only Denki had actually reached out and tried to be his friend, for whatever reason (or lack thereof) may have been floating through his head at the time.
Sure, Mineta may have acted all nice, but as soon as Hitoshi (and Denki, and Tsuburaba) made it clear that Hitoshi would not use his quirk on the girls for any of the reasons that Mineta wanted, he disappeared just like everyone else. Denki stayed though, and through him, Hitoshi was almost even friends with others in his class, like Tsuburaba, Ojiro, Sero, and Kuroiro.
So yes, there was much more to his first real friend than met the eye, even if what met the eye was very pleasing indeed.
Well, he had enough time to think about Denki later. For now Hitoshi had to get Hagakure to respond, because there was no way he was beating her in a fair fight. Everyone in Class 1-B knew that, pound for pound, in a quirkless competition (with her in long sleeves and gloves so people could see where she was), Hagakure was by far the strongest in the class and one of the best at hand-to-hand combat. She was truly scary, and had proved it the first week winning her battle trial essentially by herself. Sato and Bondo never stood a chance, despite the size advantages they had over her.
As Hitoshi climbed the stairs to the ring, he was already filtering through potential jabs and barbs that could get her to respond as quickly as possible. Denki had suggested just flirting with her, but Hitoshi didn't think he could believably sell it. Present Mic introduced him and Hagakure, but he only listened with half an ear to see if there was anything particularly interesting that he could use against her.
Hitoshi also took a moment to note her body language, just as relaxed and care-free as normal for her. Hagakure had flounced into the ring and exchanged a few joking words with Midnight before languidly stretching as she waiting for the match to begin. As far as stress or pressure points went, she wasn't really showing anything to him.
At last, Hitoshi had settled on a few options to provoke a response, with his primary choice being a pun that played on vision while also poking at Hagakure's fear of being ignored, even when under a microscope like right now.
And then Midnight started the match, and all of Hitoshi's planning was for naught, as Hagakure immediately started to shed her gym shirt and tank top underneath, leaving just her bra remaining on her invisible torso. She was in the middle of simultaneously unbuckling her bra and dropping her pants before he could form any sort of response.
"What… are you seriously getting naked right now?!" In one sense, Hitoshi shouldn't have been surprised. What better way to fight than with your opponent completely unaware of where you were. In another sense, though, Hagakure was giving the entire world an accelerated strip tease, and given how shy she had been about her hero costume in the battle trials, it was not what Hitoshi had expected.
Hagakure responded with a grunt of acknowledgment, not even a single word, but it was apparently enough to allow Hitoshi to activate his quirk.
The connection was weak and, for lack of a better word, slippery, but that must have been because of her non-verbal response. It was a struggle to keep Hagakure under control, but thankfully Hitoshi didn't need her to do much before he let his quirk drop.
"Put your clothes back on then walk out of the ring." Hitoshi had been hoping to grab her earlier, before she got too many clothes off. While U.A probably had thermal cameras or the like around the ring, it would be much easier to prove his victory if people could actually see Hagakure walk out of bounds.
It proved to be a bad idea though. As soon as he had added actual commands to his link with Hagakure, the connection began to vibrate. Hitoshi had never felt anything like it. If keeping control of Hagakure earlier was like holding onto a slippery rope, now it was as if someone was actively trying to yank that rope out of his hands.
Hitoshi went from no pain to a migraine in seconds, closing his eyes and going down to one knee to focus as best he could on keeping his quirk active long enough to win the round. He felt blood begin to drip from his nose, first slowly, but quickly increasing in pace.
With the last of his mental strength, Hitoshi tried to pull back on the connection between his mind and Hagakure's. It wasn't something he had ever done with his quirk before; it wasn't something he had ever had to do with his quirk before. With his eyes closed letting him focus more on his quirk's connection with Hagakure, Hitoshi could feel something snap as he pulled, and the line grew still.
For a moment, Hitoshi let himself relax and think that everything was going to be alright.
Then the vibration in the connection returned, doubled in intensity. Where before Hitoshi had been able to hang on, now he could feel his control over Hagakure slipping, second after second. He tried once again to pull on the connection, but couldn't even manage that again.
With a snap that Hitoshi was sure had to have been audible to everyone in the arena, the connection was broken. He cracked his eyes open to see where Hagakure was, and found her fully dressed, standing at the edge of the arena.
But she was still in bounds.
Hitoshi went to speak one of his jabs from earlier, but his mouth was as dry as a desert and he couldn't find the strength to speak. Not that it would have mattered if he could. Hagakure had apparently decided to not give him any time to put her under again. She did not attempt to go fully invisible again, rather choosing to dash directly at Hitoshi.
The last thing he remembered seeing was an empty sleeve flying at his face, and then he was unconscious.
---
Shinji Nishiya, the pro hero Kamui Woods, had provided security for the U.A Sports Festival before, and it was usually a relatively low impact task. No villain with more than two brain cells to rub together would attack U.A, especially not when so many pro heroes were attending the Sports Festival as an audience.
However, the recent attack on the U.A campus had made headlines, and Nezu had made it exceedingly clear that the security this year was to be handled with the utmost care. Gone were the days that he could spend talking with Mt. Lady or Death Arms about what was happening in the events. There hadn't been any incidents so far, but Shinji wanted to make sure things stayed that way.
But that wasn't to say that he hadn't had a chance to catch a glimpse of some of the proceedings. After all, U.A was projecting the events onto screens all over campus along with the commentary from Present Mic and Eraserhead. Even if the students involved were only first years at this point, essentially untrained, everything had still been impressive so far.
Right now, Shinji was taking a short break from patrolling the grounds of the festival, watching the one-on-one battle tournament continue. He generally preferred when the one-on-one segment had a twist to it, like the foam sword fights from last year, but understood that there was only so much you could throw at first years.
"So, Nishiya." Only years of training allowed Shinji to keep a straight face and not jump in surprise as Shinya Kamihara, Edgeshot, suddenly appeared just behind him. "See anyone that has caught your eye?"
The two of them were partners now, and acknowledged by no less than All Might of all people as being worthy of emulation. Kamihara had been independent for seven years more than Shinji had, and was already ranked in the top 10. Despite the man's attempts to include Shinji in all of the decision making for their agency, sometimes he felt a little lacking in experience. Shinji knew, though, that Kamihara was sincere, and had acted on his advice more than once already.
"I haven't managed to see all that much, but there are two that have leapt out at me. One was the girl with the vines for hair. Shiozaki, I believe her name was." Kamihara nodded, watching the screen in front of him but obviously still listening to Shinji. "Her quirk is similar enough to mine that she could learn quite a lot with us, but she's obviously still very raw. I'm thinking of making an offer to her next year, once we are more established and she has a bit of training in her."
"Very reasonable." Kamihara nodded solemnly. "I was thinking along similar lines with Hagakure, the invisible girl, but she impressed me in her first one-on-one fight." Shinji hadn't seen it directly, but had heard the commentary from Present Mic. Apparently she had enough mental fortitude to break out of a mental quirk, and enough physical and combat training to knock her opponent out in one blow. "Our quirks may not be as similar as yours and Shiozaki's, but I feel I could teach her quite a lot regardless. We'll see how she does in her next fight."
Shinji wasn't sure that their agency was truly ready to take on interns right now, but he supposed that one week wouldn't be the end of the world, especially with a talented student like Hagakure.
"And who was the other student that caught your eye?" Kamihara inquired.
"Ah, that would be Izuku Midoriya." At a raised eyebrow from Kamihara, Shinji continued. "His performance has been excellent, but that's not why I have my eye on him. I've actually run into him twice during my patrols of Musutafu in the past year. Both times he had rushed into a dangerous villain encounter in order to protect someone else. The second time he saved the life of my sidekick, Takeha."
"Impressive, if foolhardy. I can see why that would leave an impression."
"What concerns me is that I was sure that Midoriya was quirkless. All Might ended up telling off Death Arms for trying to scold Midoriya for interfering in one case while quirkless." Shinji looked back up to the screen where Shinso was being carried out of the ring by some medical robots. "Obviously he has a quirk now, though, and a powerful one at that."
"Interesting." Kamihara appeared deep in thought, staring past the screen. "Late bloomers do exist. I'm not sure if I've heard of a quirk developing at thirteen or fourteen, but I am not a scholar." The broadcast had switched to replaying highlights of the previous events, several of which focused on the student in question, sparking with green lightning. "However, you have me curious as well. Let me know if there are any other students that you think are interesting." Shinji could only nod as Kamihara walked off, returning to his patrol.